Page 9 of Real's Love

"She ain't gotta be in a... situation with him. It's just for fun. And who knows? You might find someone who?—”

I shook my head. "Stop right there. It's sweet, Taleah, how you're always hoping for true love?—”

"Just cuz her love-drunk ass found it," Kelsey interjected.

"Now, bitch, I know you ain't talking, the way Chill still got you wide open," Taleah argued with her cousin.

Kelsey lifted her shoulders nonchalantly. "And do. Every night and all day Saturday when the grandparents get the kids."

I laughed as Taleah's lip curled. "You know what I meant, nasty."

"Anyway," I said, getting us back on track. "I'm truly happy for both of you. You have the best husbands and sweet babies. But that's not for me. I have boundaries, rules that keep shit neat. A man fantasizes what he's getting from me, and I know what I'm getting from him. Purely transactional, although some parts are enjoyable," I said, smiling smugly.

Taleah looked like my words made her sad. She had such a soft heart. When she finished her nurse practitioner training, she would be the best pediatric care provider in the city just because of how she cared. Our server appeared then, setting our drinks down and temporarily stopping our conversation. I took a sip of my drink and sighed before speaking again.

"Stop with the long face. This works for me," I told her.

“What works? Those crazy rules you got?” she scoffed.

Kelsey did a little shimmy. “It looks like they work for her. Let me hear ‘em again, Ev.”

Laughing, I settled back in my seat to share the secret to my success.

“First, no dates. Dates get the mind going toward romance. That’s not for me. Second, they don’t get to sleep over. Too intimate. Too revealing. I’m offering a fantasy. I don’t need anyone to see what I look like at 5 A.M. Third, our business is just that:ourbusiness—no loose lips. I don’t need public recognition, either. Fourth, no strings attached. If it’s not working for either of us, the end. Either one of us can walk away at any time. Fifth, no deep feelings. We should like each other and be attracted, but that’s it," I said confidently.

There was no need for me to reveal how my latest situation had my usually rigid rules bending and about to fold. Kelsey held out her glass toward me, and I clinked mine against it.

“No dating?” Taleah persisted.

I shook my head, “Nope.”

“Not even one?”

Another head shake.

“Then how do you even decide to hook up with them?”

Taking another sip of my drink, I relaxed against the chair. “If someone catches my interest, we talk for a while. First, text, then phone and FaceTime. I weed out some guys that way. If the both of us have a mutual interest in taking it further, then we have a meeting where I basically interview them in depth. I look for tells that they’re lying. I notice how they groom and care for themselves. I notice how they try to handle me. And I go from there.” I smiled at her. “See? Neat and orderly.”

She sighed.

"Ev, at some point, that's not gon' be enough. You should have more. And I don't mean more money and things. I mean, yeah, the outside of you is always perfectly put together. Hell, you look like you ready to walk a runway or something right now, and you definitely gon' be the cause of some fights tonight because of how these fools peeking over here, even with their girls at their tables. But you deservemore. You're not just some pretty face on an expensive package," Taleah insisted.

"Leah, sip on that drank and leave that girl alone. You ever think she's happy the way things are?" Kelsey chimed in before sipping on her Malibu and pineapple.

I squeezed the hand Taleah had on the table near me.

"Stop worrying about me, mama. Kels is right. I'm happy," I told her.

Iwashappy, right?The self-questioning surprised me. I'd never wondered that in the last few years. Taleah was just getting to me, I figured, brushing it off. The momentary heaviness lifted as we enjoyed our drinks and conversations about everything. Taleah and I had birthdays coming up, a day apart. Her husband, Liam, was planning a party for her, and I was definitely going to help celebrate. We laughed our way through my two-drink maximum, a limit that gave me even more reason to turn down the men who came to our table offering to buy drinks. When my friends’ husbands arrived, I reached for my bag.

I didn't even think anything about the guy with them until I saw Kelsey's smirk and the gleam in Taleah's eyes.These bitches. I sighed and set my bag down as I looked up into the gorgeous, cinnamon-hued face of the man Chill introduced as his brother, Marlon.

"So, they roped you into this?" I asked him bluntly after everyone was seated.

Kelsey laughed as Taleah let out an outraged gasp.

"Yep, but pretty as you are, it's not a hardship. I can see you ain't for it, though. If you ain't got nothing else to do, we both here, and I don't mind treating yo' fine ass," Marlon offered. “Don’t make me play fifth wheel, shorty.”

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